Hi everyone,

In my last newsletter a few months ago, I opined on the dangers of gamifying everything—kind of funny coming from a CrossFit gym owner, since one of CrossFit's main tenets is "measurable and repeatable" fitness. Still, as I discussed last time, forcing all training into legible, trackable, compete-able units doesn't seem to lend itself well to long term engagement. People can get very excited short term about hitting specific numbers or beating their friends in class, but the novelty wears off and the constant ranking pushes people to bad habits (both physical and mental).

That said, we need something to train for. If it's not winning the workout every day and staying at the top of the social hierarchy of the 6:30pm class, what should it be? From last time:

"I remember back in the day, before the CrossFit competitive structure was was so established, a lot of CrossFitters were training for their own self-selected benchmarks: a sub-7 minute 2k row, a bodyweight power snatch, 20 unbroken strict pull-ups, etc. This was good and healthy! And I wish more people had these kinds of training goals! While they had legible training goals, there was less focus on day-to-day leaderboards, and progress was usually measured relative to yourself, not just where you stack up on a leaderboard."

Now, your goal may still be to be at the top of the social hierarchy of the 6:30pm class, but, at least in terms of what we encourage and incentivize, we're focusing more on goals in the "a few months" range — not so zoomed out that it's hard to see progress, but not so narrow that we're making day-to-day short-term oriented decisions that harm our overall trajectory.

In this spirit, we're happy to share the SLSC Standards. These are four tiers of fitness benchmarks across the following categories:

• Strength: "slow" lifts like back squat, deadlifts, etc.
• Power: includes both Olympic lifts and jumping
• Strength endurance: repeatability of higher percentage lifts; this trait is particularly important for CrossFit
• Calisthenics & Gymnastics: strength and repeatability of bodyweight movements
• Monostructural: traditional "cardio"; benchmarks on rowing, running, biking, etc. at various time domains
• Mixed Modal: broadly what we think of as "CrossFit" — from short burners to long grinders

We also have four tiers of benchmarks:

• Bronze: The first step towards well-rounded fitness. Someone coming in without a serious training background can start to hit some of these standards within 6-12 months of consistent training
• Silver: Fitness that would make most people in the general population jealous; starting to be able to perform some workouts as prescribed. Many people will find themselves progressing rapidly in some areas (e.g. strength) while struggling in others (e.g. calisthenics, conditioning).
• Gold: Well-rounded fitness across the board. Can generally perform all workouts as prescribed with the intended stimulus
• Platinum: Elite well-rounded fitness. This is not necessarily an elite CrossFit athlete, but someone who could compete at roughly the individual semifinals level with sport-specific training

Since rolling this out, we've been explicitly tailoring our training cycles to specific standards, which gives members something specific to train for during each class. It's easier to understand why we're pacing intervals a certain way or asking you to write your squat numbers down when there's a clear benchmark being evaluated.

Take a look at the SLSC Standards and let me know what you think. Curious to get everyone's take: does having specific performance goals like these motivate you in training?

SLSC Members of the Month

Every month, we highlight members who attend at least 10x/month — averaging at least 2x/week, which is the sweet spot for consistency to get results. Check out our profiles on Instagram for the last three members of the month:

• May 2026: Michael C​
• April 2026: Tugce K​
• March 2026: Nancy L​

Recent Legion Podcasts

If you're interested in pontification about training (with an eye on competitive CrossFit), check out these recent Legion podcast episodes where myself, Luke Holmes, and Jon Colborn argue about training athletes with plenty of dry (British) humor:

• ​Health vs Longevity for Athletes: The fittest are not the healthiest! Where is the line for hobbyist athletes who take their training seriously, but aren't making a career of it?
• ​Optimal Amount of Noise in Training: Perfectly structured progressions (strength, intervals, etc.) often disappoint when it's time to compete. Some can adapt to total chaos in training, but most need at least some form of clear progression to improve. How can we maintain structure while still adding chaos and unpredictability to training so that we get the best of both worlds?
• ​Using and Deciding on Fitness Standards: This is us thinking out loud about what would become the SLSC standards (see above)

The Legion podcast is available on all of your podcast platforms of choice, so give it a listen!

Workout Playlist Addition: "My White Bicycle" by Tomorrow

The original whisper song! In the realm of 60s psych that "never quite made it," Tomorrow's 1968 record is one of the best, and the opening track is an early salvo in a barrage of songs about bicycles. Perfect for your next set of Concept2 bike intervals...although that's more of a grey bicycle.

-Todd

PS: Summer puts aesthetics at the top of a lot of people's minds. Vacations, beaches, etc. While many people's training goals are vainer than they'd like to admit, we find that training for performance often yields better aesthetic results in practice — the discipline required to get good results is easier to come by when you're working towards a measurable performance goal rather than a fuzzier aesthetic goal. If you'd like to learn more about SLSC, we offer free consultations, one-on-one onboarding, and a menu of CrossFit, Hyrox, and Olympic Weightlifting classes. Respond to this email if you'd like to learn more.